This is great shǐt.
Also, ways around censorship. Always.
Also, ways around censorship. Always.
Builds Over the Hills, and Far Away
- Thread starter Sundowner
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
- Thread starter
- #242
I'm assuming you mean one of the grease options.
Also, ways around censorship. Always.
Yes, absolutely: just watch "The Smurfs" for some S-Tier word-replacement lessons. And that's why I don't understand censorship at all: words and images are nothing more than vehicles that we use to describe concepts and ideas...and ideas cannot be censored. So all of this "family-friendly" smurfery that we deal with is nothing more than theater...and bad theater, at that.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #243
This is off-topic, but: who needs a troopy when you have seating for five in the back of a 73?
Pictured: Technically, I am correct...which is the best kind of correct.
Also, there's been a development with the faint clicky-noise in the front; namely, I can't hear it anymore. Now, that's not saying much because I have the aural acuity of the average serpent, but after the first little test drive that noise was definitely still there...but after the rig sat for a few hours while I cleaned and greased things, I just took her a mile down the road to the market and the noise isn't there anymore. So, one of two things must be true:
Pictured: Technically, I am correct...which is the best kind of correct.
Also, there's been a development with the faint clicky-noise in the front; namely, I can't hear it anymore. Now, that's not saying much because I have the aural acuity of the average serpent, but after the first little test drive that noise was definitely still there...but after the rig sat for a few hours while I cleaned and greased things, I just took her a mile down the road to the market and the noise isn't there anymore. So, one of two things must be true:
- A helpful, noise-destroying fairy showed up while I wasn't looking, and utterly obliterated the very essence of the sound.
- The birfies were, in fact, low on grease and running semi-dry...and after a quick run-in, the newly-added grease made its way to someplace important.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #244
You know what's inconvenient? Trying to make room for a floor jack in the back of a 73 when you've already stuffed seating for five in there... because something else I didn't bring with me in the container was a - ...wait for it... - my floor jack. I was thinking that my dad might need it for working on his truck, or something similar. Then, right after I moved, he sold that truck and got a new one and talked the dealership into throwing in a big, swanky, lifetime factory service package...so he basically never has to work on a truck, again, ever. So that was a stupid plan on my part, in the end...but at least I now get to buy a bright, shiny, new floor jack! 
- Thread starter
- #245
Remember, like, way back in the day when I said...
...yes. Well. About that.
Pictured: You had one job.
Pictured: One...
Pictured: ...job.
I swear, I do it to myself. I really do. It's like some kind of "I will not allow this to be simple" compulsion, because this was almost - almost - as easy as going down to Hobo Fright and picking up a Daytona for $289, plus tax and minus 20% for Labor Day here in the U.S. of A's. But no, I drove ten extra miles to save $189, all of which I will now spend on degreaser, paper towels, and therapy...so, while I'm waiting for the oil to finish draining from the 73 - because f*** letting someone else do that from now on - I'll spend the next hour excavating this thing from underneath a layer of what looks like flaking lead paint that's being held on by asbestos and tetanus...
...and that, Dear Reader, will be a very, very good afternoon.
Pictured: Let's get started.
...yes. Well. About that.
Pictured: You had one job.
Pictured: One...
Pictured: ...job.
I swear, I do it to myself. I really do. It's like some kind of "I will not allow this to be simple" compulsion, because this was almost - almost - as easy as going down to Hobo Fright and picking up a Daytona for $289, plus tax and minus 20% for Labor Day here in the U.S. of A's. But no, I drove ten extra miles to save $189, all of which I will now spend on degreaser, paper towels, and therapy...so, while I'm waiting for the oil to finish draining from the 73 - because f*** letting someone else do that from now on - I'll spend the next hour excavating this thing from underneath a layer of what looks like flaking lead paint that's being held on by asbestos and tetanus...
...and that, Dear Reader, will be a very, very good afternoon.
Pictured: Let's get started.
Last edited:
No more complaining.
Where all would that specific grease be used?
- Thread starter
- #249
Ha! Challenge accepted! I have not yet begun to complain...but I'm going to start right now.
Pictured: It's bad... it's so very, very bad...
Last edited:
Knuckles, birfs, trunnion bearings, spindle bushing/roller bearing. Driveshaft unjoints.
Unfortunately not. Japan only. A can, when shipping is factored in, is about $75-100 landed.
- Thread starter
- #252
Good thing I didn't wait to use it; I would have been replacing a Birfield.
- Thread starter
- #253
Well I'll be damned; there was a jack underneath the surface strata.
Pictured: It dates from the Crustaceous Period.
Pictured: Huh. Imagine that.
It's now officially clean enough to be taken into the garage and actually cleaned up. I think there's a slight wrack in the frame - probably from being overloaded - but I can fix that if it really bothers me. I think with nothing more than a rebuild kit, this one will be working great...and for a hundred bucks, I'm pretty happy.
And with that, I can now start working on some other bits on the rig...and get around to finishing up coverage of the battery rework.
Pictured: It dates from the Crustaceous Period.
Pictured: Huh. Imagine that.
It's now officially clean enough to be taken into the garage and actually cleaned up. I think there's a slight wrack in the frame - probably from being overloaded - but I can fix that if it really bothers me. I think with nothing more than a rebuild kit, this one will be working great...and for a hundred bucks, I'm pretty happy.
And with that, I can now start working on some other bits on the rig...and get around to finishing up coverage of the battery rework.
Your way with words allows a lot of interpretation and (mis)-interpretation on the interwebs.
Your thread will be fun to bomb.
- Thread starter
- #255
Thank you; I take a lot of efforts to provide those exact possibilities, so it's nice when someone notices them.
Your thread will be fun to bomb.
I'll be interested to see what you come up with, so bring your A-Game.
Thank you; I take a lot of efforts to provide those exact possibilities, so it's nice when someone notices them.
I'll be interested to see what you come up with, so bring your A-Game.
I’m old. My A-game is now relegated to disastrous experiences riding bicycles in the deserts of Southern AZ trying not to die on single track with piercing flora that want to kill me.
- Thread starter
- #257
I mean, in your defense: dodging Jumbo Cactuars on singletrack is a superior act of bombery... especially when compared to the playground of irrelevance that is my thread. Watch out for that 10,000 Needles attack, though; it's a bad one.
Needles!!
- Thread starter
- #259
Alright, time's up: let's talk about having the wrong-sized nuts.
Nah, nothing to be misinterpreted there. Moving on...
Here's something that I don't understand: why aren't battery studs more easily interchangeable? The studs on my batteries are clearly threaded into place, but they also don't want to move; a 21mm socket on one of them rotated the entire battery instead of loosening the stud...so I kind of gave up at that point and decided to do things the smarter way, instead.
Pictured: Namely, with filing noises.
I guess that day's lesson was: "if you don't have the correct fastener, just make one." So I went over to Tacoma Screw, got US$1.13 worth of 5/16" and 3/8" brass hex nuts and proceeded to not use a milling machine to make them the correct sizes. I figured that a sharpie and a slightly-dull file that I keep around for gentle work on non-ferrous alloys would be just as quick as the mill, when all things were said and done...and I was right: it took a half-hour to cut the 1/2" and 9/16" across-the-flats measurements of a half-dozen standard-sized nuts down to 12 and 14mm, respectively. And that's how I took one of my favorite pictures in this rambling shambles of a thread, thus far.
Pictured: Mmmmmmm, buttery-soft driveway-bokeh...
Pictured: No edge shall be unchamfered.
Yes, that's a 3/8-16" nut, and yes, I really did put chamfers on all of those edges...and I obviously need the practice because they're not perfectly straight. Also, it's worth mentioning that although I normally don't like custom-made/proprietary fasteners on a vehicle - lookin' at you, Sunbeam, Triumph, Rover, and all of you other poor British excuses for vehicles - what I like even less is carrying a single SAE-flavored wrench for nothing other than the battery terminals. Sure, I usually carry an adjustable wrench with me, but I have a long and troubled history of mangling battery terminal nuts with adjustable wrenches; I'd like to blame that on the wrench, but in all honesty it's just a byproduct of me being over-9000-levels of inept. I'm also inept with lug crimpers, which is another reason that I bought a lot of extra terminals back in the first posts on this project; naturally, I scrapped a couple trying to figure out which dies I would need to use. Speaking of which: you'd also think that along with easily-interchangeable terminal studs, manufacturers would make standardized lugs and dies...but that is absolutely not the case.
Pictured: Supposedly identical dinguses.
Each of those terminals is supposed to be a 1/0 AWG...and they're all different sizes, both inside and out. Also, those super-heavy Quick Cable lugs on the right are far less malleable than I expected them to be.
Pictured: "Well *there's* your problem..."
So, I bent - and broke - that one because this was going to be the the distal end of the main engine/block ground on the passenger side of the vehicle. I decided to rebuild that cable while I was futzing around with all of this other nonsense, and that particular ground uses a 90° terminal in order to clear the adjacent engine block webbing...and it's now clear to me that although solid copper terminals are usually very bend-friendly, this terminal was not only not solid copper - look at the fracture - but far more frangible. Kind of makes me wonder what would have happened if I'd crimped it; how's it supposed to flow and cold-weld into the copper wire inside if it can't take more than a 30° bend? Either way, I had some other Quick Cable terminals in the order, and although their sockets were somewhat more thinly-walled, they actually had a really nice, thick stud flange and they crimped beautifully...so I just went with those, and that's what you saw in the previous shots of the stupid-heavy connector cable.
For reference, the sizing of the cables that I replaced is now as follows:
Pictured: And it cleaned up surprisingly well...but there's a problem.
Pictured: The problem.
The astute observer will have already noted that by having changed the cable size and terminal connections between the batteries, I have effectively made the factory Toyota boots somewhat useless...and that's okay, because they were shot. Replacements were sourced from Fastronix; I've used their stuff before and it's good quality...but the reds don't match and I can't sleep anymore, yet again. So, I'm probably going to see about swapping that single remaining factory boot for an aftermarket unit when I rebuild all of the alternator and starter cables, and at that point, everything will match and I'll finally be able to get some rest. And for once, I'm planning ahead on a project and creating a workable sequence of events instead of randomly charging ahead and getting 94% of the way through said project before realizing that I had forgotten to replace the terminal of the 12-volt drop that runs to the rear of the vehicle, which is how this happened:
Pictured: It's like wrapping a burrito, only...not.
If that looks confusing and moronic...well, that's because it is: I used a nylon wire looming over the positive drop to the rear of the vehicle - that's the clipped bit of 8AWG in the photo - and it had heat-shrink over it where it ran all the way to the terminal...so I had to cut everything apart in order to re-make the terminal connection. That led to a bit of fraying and unravelling, so I decided to pull the wire loom back down the wire a bit, close the end with another heat-shrink tube, and then redo the terminal connection...and because the only heat source I had was a torch, I just stuffed a pound of aluminum foil around everything, masked the nylon with a bit of tape, and fired up the torch. It worked pretty well; then, I realized that I could probably have gotten away with electrical tape for this particular connection, and I was right back to feeling stupid. All the same, when everything finally got installed, it looked good.
Pictured: Oh yes.
...and those are the batteries, sorted. The flat military lugs on the forward side will make a 24-volt winch drop super-easy to do, and I have plenty of room for a decent-sized circuit breaker to be installed. I'm also going to throw one of those into the 12-volt drop at the rear; additionally, I'll need to find a red boot for that cable, because the black one that I had to use is also robbing me of sleep. But for all intents and purposes, we're pretty much done; the few things that are left are just cleanup projects. My only concern at this point is the possibility of a dedicated headlight circuit that drops directly off the battery; that might make things a bit crowded with a winch circuit in play...but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
And that's pretty much all for this one...for now. Stay tuned.
Nah, nothing to be misinterpreted there. Moving on...
Here's something that I don't understand: why aren't battery studs more easily interchangeable? The studs on my batteries are clearly threaded into place, but they also don't want to move; a 21mm socket on one of them rotated the entire battery instead of loosening the stud...so I kind of gave up at that point and decided to do things the smarter way, instead.
Pictured: Namely, with filing noises.
I guess that day's lesson was: "if you don't have the correct fastener, just make one." So I went over to Tacoma Screw, got US$1.13 worth of 5/16" and 3/8" brass hex nuts and proceeded to not use a milling machine to make them the correct sizes. I figured that a sharpie and a slightly-dull file that I keep around for gentle work on non-ferrous alloys would be just as quick as the mill, when all things were said and done...and I was right: it took a half-hour to cut the 1/2" and 9/16" across-the-flats measurements of a half-dozen standard-sized nuts down to 12 and 14mm, respectively. And that's how I took one of my favorite pictures in this rambling shambles of a thread, thus far.
Pictured: Mmmmmmm, buttery-soft driveway-bokeh...
Pictured: No edge shall be unchamfered.
Yes, that's a 3/8-16" nut, and yes, I really did put chamfers on all of those edges...and I obviously need the practice because they're not perfectly straight. Also, it's worth mentioning that although I normally don't like custom-made/proprietary fasteners on a vehicle - lookin' at you, Sunbeam, Triumph, Rover, and all of you other poor British excuses for vehicles - what I like even less is carrying a single SAE-flavored wrench for nothing other than the battery terminals. Sure, I usually carry an adjustable wrench with me, but I have a long and troubled history of mangling battery terminal nuts with adjustable wrenches; I'd like to blame that on the wrench, but in all honesty it's just a byproduct of me being over-9000-levels of inept. I'm also inept with lug crimpers, which is another reason that I bought a lot of extra terminals back in the first posts on this project; naturally, I scrapped a couple trying to figure out which dies I would need to use. Speaking of which: you'd also think that along with easily-interchangeable terminal studs, manufacturers would make standardized lugs and dies...but that is absolutely not the case.
Pictured: Supposedly identical dinguses.
Each of those terminals is supposed to be a 1/0 AWG...and they're all different sizes, both inside and out. Also, those super-heavy Quick Cable lugs on the right are far less malleable than I expected them to be.
Pictured: "Well *there's* your problem..."
So, I bent - and broke - that one because this was going to be the the distal end of the main engine/block ground on the passenger side of the vehicle. I decided to rebuild that cable while I was futzing around with all of this other nonsense, and that particular ground uses a 90° terminal in order to clear the adjacent engine block webbing...and it's now clear to me that although solid copper terminals are usually very bend-friendly, this terminal was not only not solid copper - look at the fracture - but far more frangible. Kind of makes me wonder what would have happened if I'd crimped it; how's it supposed to flow and cold-weld into the copper wire inside if it can't take more than a 30° bend? Either way, I had some other Quick Cable terminals in the order, and although their sockets were somewhat more thinly-walled, they actually had a really nice, thick stud flange and they crimped beautifully...so I just went with those, and that's what you saw in the previous shots of the stupid-heavy connector cable.
For reference, the sizing of the cables that I replaced is now as follows:
- Main engine/block ground: 2AWG
- Chassis ground immediately adjacent to the forward battery: 4AWG
- Connector between batteries: 1/0AWG
Pictured: And it cleaned up surprisingly well...but there's a problem.
Pictured: The problem.
The astute observer will have already noted that by having changed the cable size and terminal connections between the batteries, I have effectively made the factory Toyota boots somewhat useless...and that's okay, because they were shot. Replacements were sourced from Fastronix; I've used their stuff before and it's good quality...but the reds don't match and I can't sleep anymore, yet again. So, I'm probably going to see about swapping that single remaining factory boot for an aftermarket unit when I rebuild all of the alternator and starter cables, and at that point, everything will match and I'll finally be able to get some rest. And for once, I'm planning ahead on a project and creating a workable sequence of events instead of randomly charging ahead and getting 94% of the way through said project before realizing that I had forgotten to replace the terminal of the 12-volt drop that runs to the rear of the vehicle, which is how this happened:
Pictured: It's like wrapping a burrito, only...not.
If that looks confusing and moronic...well, that's because it is: I used a nylon wire looming over the positive drop to the rear of the vehicle - that's the clipped bit of 8AWG in the photo - and it had heat-shrink over it where it ran all the way to the terminal...so I had to cut everything apart in order to re-make the terminal connection. That led to a bit of fraying and unravelling, so I decided to pull the wire loom back down the wire a bit, close the end with another heat-shrink tube, and then redo the terminal connection...and because the only heat source I had was a torch, I just stuffed a pound of aluminum foil around everything, masked the nylon with a bit of tape, and fired up the torch. It worked pretty well; then, I realized that I could probably have gotten away with electrical tape for this particular connection, and I was right back to feeling stupid. All the same, when everything finally got installed, it looked good.
Pictured: Oh yes.
...and those are the batteries, sorted. The flat military lugs on the forward side will make a 24-volt winch drop super-easy to do, and I have plenty of room for a decent-sized circuit breaker to be installed. I'm also going to throw one of those into the 12-volt drop at the rear; additionally, I'll need to find a red boot for that cable, because the black one that I had to use is also robbing me of sleep. But for all intents and purposes, we're pretty much done; the few things that are left are just cleanup projects. My only concern at this point is the possibility of a dedicated headlight circuit that drops directly off the battery; that might make things a bit crowded with a winch circuit in play...but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
And that's pretty much all for this one...for now. Stay tuned.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #260
In unrelated news: a new seal kit for the Snap-On jack is ordered, and a new release/fill valve as well...so it should be up and running here in a few weeks when I do the 160K oil change, during which I'll also do a full tire rotation and check the brake pads. I'm thinking that it's just about time to get a set...so: any opinions on that?
Similar threads
